Saturday, March 24, 2007

I needed a haircut badly. I decided to burn some calories on my bike in this wonderful weather (72 Degrees, mostly sunny but very windy). I also needed to hose off my Outlook in the worst way. I rode it to the coin-op carwash and used the no-pressure setting to get it cleaned up, then off to get my mop chopped.

After I got my hair cut, I decided to swing by Dick's Sporting Goods to see if their cycling apparel section has gotten any better since spring is back. Lo and behold I find a lone pair of Cannondale mountain bike shorts with a padded liner in my size (Ginormous). I picked them up. I'm still not big on the "road cyclist" look, but I don't have any decent shorts for riding in, and with the weather warming up, it's about time I stop wearing jeans.

So, 5 miles of errands. Not bad. As I ride past Renner (a mile from home) though, something calls me northbound. I think it was the wind, as it was coming out of the southwest. Regardless, I veered north because I really wasn't ready to stop pedaling in one mile. So I rode, and rode, and rode some more. I got a new top speed record for the Outlook, too: 41.0 MPH! I kept going, up to 95th street, then west, into the blistering wind once again. Down a long hill, up another long hill, all the way to the new Falcon Ridge area, where I stopped at a convenience store on Woodland for a water refill.

Riding south on Woodland was such a pain in the butt. The wind was even stronger out of the south than from the west, and Woodland is basically stretches of 6-8% uphill separated by 2-3% downhill runs. With the wind, though, it was like riding a 3-mile solid stretch of 3-15% uphill.

My 5 mile errand run turned into almost 19 miles of pain and suffering, but it hurts so good!

More fun this weekend: I go in tonight at 11pm till 4am for server maintenance again. This is the 3rd weekend of this crap in a row, but at least I'm being compensated well for my job. Such is the life of an IT geek. Then, I get to go to church in the morning to run video and sound. I'm gonna be such a zombie on Monday.

Also, I'd like to welcome Sirrus Rider to the blogosphere, who's fighting the good fight, bicycle commuting and blogging out of Houston. Bicycle Commute Houston. It's cool to see the differences and similarities that my commute has to others across the USA (which is arguably one of the most cyclist-hostile of all developed, civilized nations).

Recap:18.6 miles instead of 5.Got my hair cutNew bike shorts (woot!)New lard speed record (41.0 MPH)Long work week, lots of stuff to doA new friend in the blogosphere.

1 comment:

"New lard speed record (41.0 MPH)"harharhar......I'm too afraid to look down when I go that fast!!

I decided to go insane-o today - 7 AM ride up to Brookside to ride with the Bloomsday riders, or whatever we call ourselves. 11 miles/40 mins with the tailwind :)

Then, we ride 30 miles down to the City Mkt, take a detour up to First Watch on Armour Rd, then spin around the Cliff Drive area and back to Brookside....which was ok except for the 11 miles of headwind back....:(

Great day for a ride though!! OK the wind wasn't great but it's still fun :)

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